Parrot Analytics SVOD platform trend reports reveal which SVOD’s digital original series are appealing most to audiences in a market during these three months, dive deeper into how this looks for the dynamic action and adventure genre and shed light on the overall size of digital original series within the entire market.

The key questions investigated in this report:

1. Are New Zealand audiences demanding more linear or more digital content?

2. Which SVOD’s original series are demanded most by New Zealand audiences and how is this evolving?

3. In the Action and Adventure genre, which SVOD’s original series are demanded most by New Zealand audiences and how is this evolving?

Are New Zealand audiences demanding more linear or digital content?

• During these three months, 17.1% of all demand for series expressed in New Zealand is for a digital original series. Series originating from a linear network account for 82.9% of demand.

• This is a good performance for linear series in New Zealand. Globally, linear series account for 81.3% of series demand in the same period.

• However, digital original series still overperform relative to the number of such series. 11.0% of all series are digital originals, but they account for 17.1% of New Zealand demand. This means that the average digital original series has higher demand than the average linear series.

Which SVOD’s original series are most in-demand by New Zealand audiences?

• Between November 2020 and January 2021, 43.4% of all demand for digital original series is expressed for a Netflix original series.

• The Netflix demand share in New Zealand is smaller than Netflix’s global demand share of 50.3%.

• New Zealand has strong demand for Disney+ originals. Globally, the Disney+ demand share is 4.6% but it has more than double that in New Zealand with 10.7%. One likely reason for the difference from the global figure is that New Zealand was one of the earliest launch markets for this platform.

The next chart shows how the demand shares for these five platforms have evolved over the past 12 months:

• Demand share trends over the past 12 months show how the New Zealand market has changed. In particular, the Netflix demand peak in April 2020 coincides with the longest lockdown in New Zealand. This indicates that as the platform with the most prolific release schedule of digital original series, Netflix benefited from the increased content consumption.

• A longer-term trend is the increase in the demand share for series from other platforms. This reflects the ever-increasing amount of high-quality originals from newer platforms.

• At the high point of October 2020, the Other category had 18.3% demand share in NZ. Raised By Wolves from HBO Max and Ted Lasso from Apple TV+ were the most highly demanded series of this type.

Which SVOD’s Action and Adventure original series are demanded most by New Zealand audiences?

• New Zealand’s high demand for Disney+ original series is even more pronounced in the action/adventure genre of show.

• Globally, the demand share for Disney+ action/adventure series is second largest, behind the share for Netflix. However, in New Zealand Disney+ leads with a 38.3% demand share.

• This additionally squeezes the share for HBO Max, whose 9.6% demand share here is noticeably smaller than the global share of 16.1%.

The next chart shows how the action and adventure demand shares for these five platforms have evolved over the past 12 months:

• The 12-month chart shows how far HBO Max’s demand share has declined in New Zealand. DC Universe series had a considerable share of the market prior to that service’s merger into HBO Max. However, COVID-related delays of new seasons has led to a decline.

• HBO Max is not alone with this problem. Netflix had a good summer 2020 with releases like The Umbrella Academy but has lost share since, with delays like The Witcher S2 missing its planned December 2020 release.

• Following the opposite trajectory is Disney+, which enjoyed a large surge of demand during the release of S2 of The Mandalorian in late 2020.

This report is intended as a high-level overview of the SVOD market in this country. To access more granular platform demand trends for specific platforms, genres, timeframes and more, contact your Parrot Analytics representative.